You are Being Judged. Think Again.

You may not know it, but your actions on social media are under-rated.

The once largest platforms of social media that we can still recall were probably along the lines of Neopets, LiveJournal, Xanga, MySpace, all of which are now irrelevant, if not extinct. As of 2013, Facebook, a longtime household name, boasts a healthy 1.15 billion users, with over 699 million daily active users. Yet, Facebook itself has changed significantly since its founding on February 4, 2004, so much so that some users from 2004 may not even know how to use the current site.

Past media have also seemed to constitute new forms and spaces of sociality, even virtuality, they have quickly been absorbed into everyday practices as utilities.

You are judged by the circle and community around you based on your virtual remarks. Therefore, your online personality is a direct representation of your offline personality, showing off characteristics that you may or may not want people “in the real world” to know. While the virtual world can create a concept of a fifth dimension, a new social world that extends beyond geographic boundaries, most of us still must advance our daily lives in the original world, interacting with real people. But can you ever take back a tweet or status update once you’ve pressed the “enter” button? No.

With that said, lets look at some things that you absolutely cannot post should try to avoid on social media.

1) #Hashtags

Hashtags were cool until people knew what topics people were trying to track. And then this picture happened. It’s pretty self-explanatory as to why people don’t like to see 6 lines of hashtags before they get to the comments or the next post. The rule of thumb for hashtags on instagram: 4/5, all must be relevant to the post. That means no hashtagging #food, #selfie, #fashion when you posted a picture of your new ipad. For Twitter: 2, usually for sarcasm purposes or to acknowledge the subject to your random tweet. For Facebook, 0. Sorry Facebook, even though you finally caught onto the hashtag trend, its just not the same.

#notcool

2) There is a Limit on Facebook Statuses

Or at least there should be. Unless you are telling me an incredibly awkward moment of the day that might make me rolling on the floor laughing or some awesome event that made you resolve your identity crisis (clearly I’m exaggerating). Okay fine, you can have a picture of your cute cat/dog, otherwise, please limit your statuses to 1 or 2 a day. Not convinced? There is a facebook group that would back me up.

Add-on: Don’t post facebook statuses saying “you had a bad day” and then refuse to talk about it when someone comments asking why. Play nice.

3) Social Media PDA and Selfies

I’m all about having good relationships with others and yourself. It’s different when you choose to constantly show such affection to the world. It’s cute if you post a status tagging your significant other on your anniversary, maybe once a year kind-of-thing. Please refrain from making your fights, every detail of your relationship open. This tip is probably better for you than for your peers around you. You never know who sees some unnecessary posts and one day, it might come back to bite you. Oh yes, twitter, facebook, tumblr also have these also features where you can message privately. Such a great invention!

Same goes for selfies. I understand that we all care about appearances and taking pictures of ourselves to show family, friends seems to really be a trend lately. Let’s…try not to over-do it. There is such a thing as too much. Everyone’s tolerance level of selfies is different, but to go on the safe side, how about one a day max? Ladies and gentlemen, try to wear some appropriate clothing when taking those selfies, I hear some human resources departments have powerful stalking search skills. Here’s an example of a good one:

Approved by all

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Not only do we under-rate our own actions on social media for ourselves, but often times we under-rate the entire effect that social media may have on our future as well. Whether that is “painting an inaccurate self-portrait”, or having “retweet regrets” , the internet is a giant storage that may have more consequences than we can expect. Heather Dugan, from Huffington Post, summarizes it all:

Ideally, your social networking skills will enhance your opportunities. But occasionally we all succumb to lack of time, judgment or diligence.

Your online profile in its many and varied forms represents you — often without the opportunity for response. So, anticipation is key to defining and defending the professional reputation you’ve built.

Finally, thank you for reading and hopefully you rolled your eyes in agreement at some of the points above. Happy Monday!